What I enjoy so much about this spot is the sharply drawn visceral power of all the sounds used. It's a sonic tour de force. Not only do the sound effects used each make an immediate impact but they flow in a way which provides an impressive connective tissue going from one image to the next.

It is a perfect example of how sound can add an internal dimension to the images on the screen, deepening their dramatic impact. I feel like I am inside each one of those athletes feeling the heart pounding urgency and adrenaline rush of the moment. It turns watching the images into a powerful emotional experience. My heart is still racing after each viewing. The partnership between sound and image is mutual, each giving the other a stronger meaning. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Well done! - Jacob Ribicoff

About the entry and production team:

Working on this film (originally a 70sec spec-commercial for “Adidas – Pure Performance” directed by film school student Mario Zozin in 2008) has been an exciting process. The director had this great idea about showing athletes without their equipment to be as close as possible to their performance. In my work I focussed on the people and what they might hear and feel from their POV to reflect something of their tension, concentration and energy . To get the “pure performance” I mixed up real and surreal sound elements with a lot of filtering and playing with phase. The original mix contains a light piano music. The effect when muting either the music or the SFX track has been incredible. There is no real “what you see is what you hear” feeling and sound effects are creating another dimension of the picture. - Martin Schütze

After several years of experience as a guitarist in rock/pop and jazz bands, in studio productions and part-time jobs as a stage and front of house mixer at events, fairs and concerts, I attended the Institute For Music And Media in Duesseldorf. I focused on sound and picture engineering and Jazz Guitar, graduating in 2006. After some experiences as a producer of music videos and a music documentary in China and Japan in 2005, jobs as a freelance sound engineer followed – e.g. at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus (playhouse) as well as on the cruise ship MS Deutschland. Since 2007 I work as a sound engineer at the 3Klang studio in Duesseldorf, Germany (a TV commercial post production studio). I also work as a freelance composer and sound designer for film.

The inspiration for the sound design came through collaboration between Ric Serena (the director of this piece), Chris Kneller (the visual effects artist) and myself. In my mind, sound should always compliment the image, not overshadow it. This is how we addressed the question of the role of sound effects in picture. Ric wanted the piece to be light and fun. As the visual effects were metaphor for an immediate flirtatious attraction between two people, we wanted to suggest heat, movement, and playfulness in the sound design while leaving adequate room for the music to set the stage. We felt that using identifiable sounds such as jet packs and fireworks for the streamers coming off of the character's hands accomplished that. The shots themselves were layered gunshots, tempered down so as not to sound too violent. The Blaswave fx were used for the light pole hits, the shot of the heart forming, as well as some of the title and background sounds. It was great fun, and shows how sounds from a variety of sources can help to create a complete sound design for any piece.

Bio: David Barnaby

I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, and attended film school at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico. I've wanted to help make films since I saw "Die Hard" in 1988, at the age of 15. That was really the first time I saw how both picture editing and sound design completely sold the technical side of film storytelling. When I went to film school, I wanted to be a film editor, but quickly learned that my eye for it wasn't as strong as I initially thought. My ears, however, were well tuned, having come from a very musical family (I and all of my siblings play an instrument as well as sing). I also spent most of my childhood in front of stereo equipment and tape machines. Very few people at my film school were comfortable with the audio equipment there, so I jumped in and started making up sounds for many of my fellow student's films. I kept it up - working in the independent film market in NYC for 10 years, and eventually moved to Los Angeles almost 5 years ago, where I've continued to sound design indie film, TV and commercials. It's a blast!